Because of market constraints, it is becoming economically more attractive to process highly acidic crudes such as acidic naphthenic crudes. However, it is well known that processing such acidic crudes can lead to various problems associated with naphthenic acid and other corrosion. Understanding the causes and extent of corrosion of various solutions on one or more of a range of materials is an important element of designing structures that resist such corrosion.
Analytical tools and methods of using these tools have been developed to assess corrosion and the corrosive potential of various solutions including highly acidic crudes such as acidic naphthenic crudes. Cost-effective, repeatable and reliable high temperature methods using crystal microbalance in relative mass change detection to determine the corrosion rates of metals in crudes have been developed.
Apparatus are needed to facilitate such methods, particularly apparatus able to withstand higher pressures encountered in test vessels at high temperatures.